non castella locis, non tutae moenibus urbes....[1351]
Added to these troubles from without was the internal commotion caused by robber bands like the notorious Bagaudae, who, in spite of periodical repressions,[1352] continued to exist.[1353] So formidable were they that in 407 Sarus, the general of Honorius, was obliged to buy from them his passage into Italy with a rich portion of spoil.[1354] The oppression of officials swelled their ranks,[1355] and in the middle of the fifth century they established a commonwealth which took a prominent part in the fighting in Spain at that time. Thus they were a constant source of disturbance, and the prolongation of this unrest is mirrored in the pages of Sidonius. In a letter to Lupus,[1356] he tells of a woman who has been carried away by bandits, the local Vargi who were the spiritual descendants of the Bagaudae. The attacks of the Goths towards the end of the fifth century made travelling dangerous, and Sidonius postpones writing to Eutropius on this account.[1357] He sends his messenger only after he hears that ‘the treaty-breaking race’ (foedifragam gentem) has returned within its borders. We hear of a man who had fled with his family into the diocese of Bishop Censorius ‘depredationis Gothicae turbinem vitans’. Sidonius asks Censorius to treat him indulgently and to remit the glebe-dues in his case, so that he may have the whole harvest for himself.[1358] And so it went on. There were constant disputes,[1359] and whenever there was an invasion the Arvernians suffered: ‘huic semper irruptioni nos miseri Arverni ianua sumus.’[1360]
We can hardly wonder that this constant unrest made men despair of final peace. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, writes to Aurelian in a pessimistic strain.[1361] The evils of the time, he thinks, are not really healed. At best they cannot be said to be more than kept within bounds, so that the peace which coyly appears is fictitious. The mind is lulled to rest with a false security only until there comes the recrudescence of a worse fear and the faltering sobs of grief. ‘Wherefore, my good friend, cease to hope for the end of our evils in the midst of fiery ills, and when a change comes and the storm has abated and the face of ever so small a calm shows itself, do not delight in the altered events; make use of them.’
The effect of this upon the social fabric, and so on education, is obvious. Even if, as Freeman thinks, the youth of Gaul were not much concerned in the defence of their country, which was left mainly to such allies as the Franks,[1362] education must have shared in the general disorganization of society. The material means of instruction was frequently removed by the impoverishment of families.
Qui centum quondam terram vertebat aratris,
aestuat ut geminos possit habere boves.
vectus magnificas carpentis saepe per urbes,
rus vacuum fessis aeger adit pedibus.
ille decem celsis sulcans maria ante carinis